Anonymous and declared-agent access differ
AI-BOT-POLICY-005 · v1.0
What it detects
Two homepage fetches — one as an ordinary anonymous browser, one as Scovant's declared honest agent identity — received DIFFERENT bot-protection verdicts.
Why it matters
The difference shows whether a refusal tracks automation in general or the agent's IDENTITY. Challenging anonymous automation while admitting declared agents is a healthy posture; the inverse turns away exactly the agents that announce themselves and respect robots.txt while letting unidentified automation through.
How to fix
Decide, deliberately, whether identified agents are welcome — and make the edge agree with that decision. If you WANT agent traffic (the common case for commerce, docs and support content), admit identities that declare themselves: enrol in a verified-bot programme, or accept cryptographic Web Bot Auth request signatures, so an agent that announces itself is admitted while anonymous automation is still challenged. If you do NOT want it, say so in robots.txt. An honest `Disallow` is machine-legible and lets well-behaved agents skip you cleanly, instead of spending a request to be refused at the edge. Never the third option: weakening anti-bot protection is not the fix, and Scovant does not recommend it.
Example
anonymous browser -> 200; declared ScovantBot -> 403
References
Last reviewed: 2026-09-01 · rule v1.0